Age and sex differences in behavioral flexibility, sensitivity to reward value, and risky decision-making

Behavioral Neuroscience
Sara R WestbrookJoshua M Gulley

Abstract

Compared with adults, adolescent behavior is often characterized by reduced behavioral flexibility, increased sensitivity to reward, and increased likelihood to take risks. These traits, which have been hypothesized to confer heightened vulnerability to psychopathologies such as substance use disorders (SUDs), have been the focus of studies in laboratory animal models that seek to understand their neural underpinnings. However, rodent studies to date have typically used only males and have adopted standard methodological practices (e.g., weight loss inducing food restriction) that are likely to have a disparate impact on adolescents compared with adults. Here, we used adolescent and adult Sprague-Dawley rats of both sexes to study instrumental behavior tasks that assess behavioral flexibility (strategy shifting and reversal learning; Experiment 1), sensitivity to reward value (outcome devaluation; Experiment 2), and risky decision making (probability discounting; Experiment 3). In Experiment 1, we found that adolescents were faster to acquire reversal learning than adults but there were no differences in strategy shifting. In Experiments 2 and 3, adolescents and adults were equally sensitive to changes in reward value and exhib...Continue Reading

Citations

May 22, 2018·Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior·Sara R WestbrookJoshua M Gulley
Sep 8, 2019·Developmental Psychobiology·Trevor Theodore TownerLinda Patia Spear
Jul 11, 2020·Genes, Brain, and Behavior·Shawn M AardeJames D Jentsch
Jan 30, 2020·Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience·Analise N RodeSara E Morrison
Oct 14, 2020·Developmental Psychobiology·Indra R BishnoiMartin Kavaliers
Nov 8, 2020·Physiology & Behavior·Jonathan Kent Gore-LangtonLinda Patia Spear
Aug 28, 2020·Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience·Andrew T MarshallSean B Ostlund
Aug 1, 2021·Neurobiology of Learning and Memory·Lindsay K-P AltidorJennifer L Bizon

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